Okay, less than a second.

He put it to the test and immediately felt the change. With how quickly rapid thought speed was leveling he could already push his mind faster than he’d ever expected to, but that one level added an additional five percent boost to what he already had, getting him just that much faster.

…Ten percent boost. Yeah, this is going to work well.

“I don’t suppose you have the circlet I made you, do you?”

“Ah, I, um, left it at home,” She told him awkwardly, having no intention of using it if she could help it with how disorienting it had felt the last time she’d tried one on.

“No worries, I’ll make another now. Fair warning though, it’s probably going to be a bit more uncomfortable than the last one since the goal is getting you your skills before they have to leave.”

He didn’t notice the look of horror on her face as he focused on his arm, slipping off one of the three mythril bands he kept on it for training his enchanting before using his magic to reshape both it and the mana battery it contained so that it would fit comfortably on her head before working on the enchantments for it.

Since the goal was to get her to learn three new branches of magic as fast as possible, it meant the experience wasn’t going to be the most pleasant but he decided to make it up to her later in favour of practicality as he designed it to cause her mind to split into three, greatly increasing her awareness as a whole before adding the two newest skills to his name, both of his thought speed skills.

It was quick and easy work, and with it done, all that was left was whatever magic Thera wanted to start with as he handed the tool over, seeing the defeated look in her eye.

“You okay?”

“Just mentally preparing myself to try not to vomit.”

“It’s not that bad. I literally live like this.”

“Mmh.”

She was far from convinced but focused on the people with them, already knowing what magics she would be attempting to learn. With the goal being to level them up so she could awaken them all together, that meant she needed to go for ones that would be easy for her, which slimmed down the list considerably.

Enchanting required too much technical skill and corpse song required a supply of bodies to practice with, knocking them both off as options, and she had trouble wrapping her head around both clairvoyance and scrying, meaning she’d be going for mana crystallization, empathy, and barrier magic, preferably in that order as she stated her choices, with the centaur who possessed mana crystallization coming forward first to teach it to her.

As she put on the circlet he’d thrown together so quickly and fought off the intense feeling of nausea, the room they were in quickly filled with mana constructs as she rushed to learn it as fast as she could, if only to be able to get out of using the tool Ben had given her slightly faster, while he for his part focused on just how he wanted to grow from all of the skills before him.

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He had two left based on the deal they’d made so he wanted to use them wisely, the only question was how. He could scratch off all of their affinitied skills, but that still left plenty between them all for him to take advantage of.

Let’s see, I honestly really really want another magic too, and I’m pretty certain I could make it happen. My minds could all practice the skills at once and I could just keep refilling my mana from Thera till I get them, but that would only be for my own desires. I’m a craftsman, I need to play to the strengths I have. If we live then I’ll treat myself by paying for their services in the future and waste a fortune getting every skill they have that looks fun, but for now, I should aim for whatever would get me closer to making legendary items.

He had the same issue as Thera in that sense, he could worry about whatever would come next if he lived to see it, but for the time being, it was more important for him to get the skills that would give him the most use in arming the world.

He didn’t know how many people on the planet had awakened crafting-type skills, but he knew the number wasn’t high, and with Iberu either dead or being punished for his crimes the world had just lost one at a pretty pivotal time, he couldn’t just indulge himself when he needed to work.

“Okay, I know what I need to do, this makes things easier. In that case, what would be best for my core skills?”

He felt his eyes running over all of their skills again before he finally came to his answer.

“Alright, looks like I’ll go for fine motor control and lesser inspiration.”

“Uh, are you sure about those?” Zandale asked hesitantly. “Fine motor control doesn’t do too much for hominid types, it’s far more handy for those with body structures like my own since it makes it easier to use all of my limbs at once, and lesser inspiration is a skill that’s hard to level since it mostly acts on the subconscious.”

“I am. Using my hands is literally my job so any little boost I can get with it is going to be useful, and I have enough projects that could use a bit of inspiration to bring together.”

Neither of them were flashy skills, but anything that could let him add a bit of quality to whatever he made was valuable, and lesser inspiration had a lot of potential, especially when combined with the mind skills he already had.

From all of the study on skills he’d already done, he understood that it was a rare one that wasn’t the most clear in its use. Compared to any knowledge skill, which made it significantly easier for the holder to remember and bring forth information on its related topic, lesser inspiration was for applying that knowledge, making it easier to connect separate ideas into something new. Or at least that was the belief. Unlike other skills, it was hard to test and confirm its effects to know if it really did make a person better at using what was in their heads.

But I have a summoning spell to work on, a robot’s body to build, and some languages to try and decipher so I’ll take all of the help I can get, no matter how vague the skill effect is. I’m just going to think of it as another mind skill that will make the way I think more powerful.

I wouldn’t worry, since this isn’t one it seems like I’ll be able to consciously use, I probably won’t be able to speed level it like the other two.

Okay, well first of all, rude. Second though, I still think it’s worth it. It shouldn’t have the sort of painful interaction I was dealing with in the past so if its effect is more powerful for the way I think I’m going to take it as a happy bonus.

With the decision made, he had the effects of both skills placed on him before trying to put them into practice, materializing lead to draw on the floor in an attempt to work on his motor skills as the rest of his minds played with the various ideas in his head, doing whatever he could to refine what he already had.